Finding Your Inner Peace as a Planner

1. 2013 APA Ohio Planning Conference Professional Development Workshop September 25, 2013 10:45 a.m. – Noon Finding Your Inner Peace as a Planner

2. Learning Objective • Learning practical tools for addressing stress and negativity and the long-term emotional effects of conflict and how to not let these things negatively impact our personal and professional relationships and our careers.

3. Speakers • Katherine Keough-Jurs, AICP • Senior City Planner, City of Cincinnati Department of Planning and Buildings • Greg Dale, FAICP • Principal, McBride Dale Clarion

4. Agenda • Introduction • Why are we talking about this? • Stress and Negativity– How Our Bodies and Minds React • Stress and the Mind-Body Connection • Strategies for Coping with Stress • Case Studies • Review real-world experiences, discuss issues and solutions • Considerations for the Future • What are our Next Steps as a Profession?

5. Introduction • Katherine Keough-Jurs, AICP • Senior City Planner, City of Cincinnati Department of Planning and Buildings

6. Stress, Negativity, and Conflict • Stress, negativity, and conflict are a reality in nearly all professions

7. Our Complex Profession • Commitment to working with the public • Blending technical knowledge/political advocacy • Working where you live - Passion for your place • Always ‘on-call’ • Dehumanization of “The City” staff or “The Consultant” • Questioning of our expertise - ignoring complexity of the practice • “Why didn’t you do X!”

8. Research on the Subject • Mostly on how you can manage conflict: • community conflict • interpersonal conflict • dealing with an angry public • techniques to diffuse tense situations, etc.

9. The Long-Term Effects • How do we react to stress, negativity, and conflict, not just in the moment, but afterwards? • What are the effects of this over time?

10. What Conflict and Stress Make us Feel • Anger • Lack of Self -Confidence • Shame • Anxiety • Avoidance • Guilt • Depression • Cynicism

11. The Cumulative Effect

12. It’s all about perspective… An all-consuming problem? Or A good war story?

13. Stress and Negativity– How Our Bodies and Minds React • Katherine Keough-Jurs, AICP • Senior City Planner, City of Cincinnati Department of Planning and Buildings

14. Stress – You Are Not Alone • 80% of American workers say they have experienced stress related problems. • 51% of employees say they frequently feel physically or emotionally drained at the end of the day.

15. How Does Stress Affect Our Health? • Stress can play a part in problems such as headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, skin conditions, asthma, arthritis, depression, and anxiety. • It can also bring on or worsen certain symptoms or diseases.

16. Stress – It’s costing us • One million workers are absent with stress-related illness every day, costing American employers about $300 billion each year. • Stress affects performance: • Lowers Morale • Reduces Customer Service • Increases Medical and Disability Costs.

17. Resilience • The ability to adapt well to stress, adversity, trauma, or tragedy. It is the ability to bounce back from negative experiences and the flexibility to adapt to the changing demands of stressful experiences.

18. Positive Coping Strategies for Stress • Physical and Lifestyle Strategies • Cognitive Strategies • Emotional Strategies • Philosophical/Spiritual Strategies

19. Physical and Lifestyle Strategies • Practice abdominal breathing and relaxation • Follow a low-stress diet (limit CATS) • Get regular exercise • Have downtime (including “mental health days”) • Take Mini-breaks (5-10 minutes) • Improve time management • Practice sleep hygiene • Prioritize your needs

20. Cognitive Strategies • Practice constructive thinking (counter negative thinking) • Find distraction (from negative preoccupations) • Have a task-oriented (vs. reactive) approach to problems • Practice acceptance/coping with setbacks • Be tolerant of ambiguity – ability to see shades of grey

21. Emotional Strategies • Develop strong, supportive relationships • Practice Self-nurturing (treat yourself) • Constantly improve communication • Make time for recreational activities (Playtime) • Don’t be afraid of emotional release • Keep and build your sense of humor

22. Philosophical/Spiritual Strategies • Develop a goal or purpose and consistently work toward it • Nurture a positive philosophy of life • Consider committing to a religious or spiritual philosophy

23. Spectrum of Responses

24. Case Studies • Greg Dale, FAICP • Principal, McBride Dale Clarion

25. Case Study #1

26. Case Study #1 I am a public-sector planner who was assigned to review a requested zone change for a proposed affordable housing project for seniors. My staff recommendation was to support the zone change, and the immediate neighbors and surrounding community were very supportive of the project as well. However, the neighboring community was strongly against the project, and many people testified in opposition to the project at the Planning Commission meeting. Those in opposition were sometimes nasty in their comments and condescending to the immediate neighbors, most of whom are lower-income. One of the opposition leaders even followed me, uninvited, back to my office after the meeting where she proceeded to berate me using foul language. Later, she posted negative comments about me and the project on her Facebook page, using class and race-insensitive language. I find their behavior (and especially hers) to be atrocious, and my feelings are exacerbated by the fact that I grew up in that part of town. I am feeling quite ashamed of their behavior, and therefore my hometown. I also now actively avoid any assignments in that part of town.

27. Issues and Solutions in Case Study #1 Issues • Shame • Avoidance • Patterns of distortion Possible Solutions • Setting boundaries • Cognitive reframe (no negative self-talk)

28. Case Study #2

29. Case Study #2 I am a planner in private practice who was working on a community plan. One of the stakeholders was an attorney who did not like the planning process and was very aggressive about it. He made numerous threats via emails, posted horrible things on the community online discussion board, sent letters on his law firm’s letter head, even requested a copy of the contract under which we were hired. He found my home phone number and called me at home at 8 pm on a weeknight. I politely talked to him about his concerns over the planning process. My young son began crying, which he could hear in the background. I told him that I had to go, but he kept talking. I finally had to simply hang up the phone.   He approached me in the parking lot after the next meeting and told me that I’m a bad mother and must be neglecting my child because he heard my child crying on our phone call. You can imagine how upset I was. This person had made many attempts to challenge my professional competency and now was questioning my competency as a mother. I felt like he crossed a line and I didn’t know how to respond. This happened during a really stressful point in my personal life because I was traveling a lot for work while having a toddler at home. My husband was frustrated with the travel schedule and workload and the impact it was having on our home life. His comments hit a sore spot. I took it very personally, even though in my mind I knew this guy was just a jerk.   I eventually confided in the planning director who was very sympathetic and angry about it too. He told the county commissioner who said that I no longer had to return his calls or talk to him and if the citizen had a problem with that he could come to the county commissioner.

30. Issues and Solutions in Case Study #2 Issues • Letting work bleed into personal life • Guilt • Self-confidence Possible Solutions • Setting limits – beyond just professional situations • Hitting a sore spot? May be a sign it has gone too far • Ask for help

31. Case Study #2 – Final Word This ultimately ended up with the richest reward I could imagine. Later on, the attorney was such a pain and threw such a fit over the expansion of a Catholic church in the community that the Pope wrote a letter that was published in all of the area Catholic newspapers specifically condemning his actions. I figure that getting reprimanded by the Pope was just reward for putting up with this guy for a year in our planning process. I now use this as a teachable moment when I’m mentoring others.

32. Case Study #3

33. Case Study #3 A resident in my community acquired a miniature horse to use as a “therapy” animal for her severely disabled child.  I believed it was not permissible under the Zoning Code, so I cited her; she appealed to the BZA and City Council, who in an effort to accommodate the situation, chose to not enforce the decision, but never said it was permitted. She proceeded to get some pigs and an alpaca. We eventually wrote an Ordinance that Council passed that made keeping “farm animals” illegal as a general offence (not a Zoning law) enforceable by the Police.  She was very challenging to deal with.  She contacted local TV, who then pestered me about the situation, clearly hoping to come up with a story about how the City was the “bad guy” in the situation. I actually felt bad for her because the horse could, in theory, provide a benefit to the child. I resented the situation because it made me feel so conflicted and that I couldn’t separate my feelings from the situation. There were periods through the 8 month ordeal where the conflict became more pronounced between the neighbors.  Police were involved and emotions ran high. 

34. Case Study #3 – Cont’d The worst feeling was that I was letting down the neighbors. The process was so drawn-out that it was making them crazy. I got cussed out. I thought one guy was going to punch me. Others pleaded with me to DO something. It kept me up at night going over what could have been done differently to make this all transpire more quickly.  There were heavy-duty emotions on all sides.  The horse-owner cried during the hearings.  A few neighbors wanted to the City to allow her to keep the horse, but most of the neighbors were at their wit’s end dealing with the offender, her live-in boyfriend, and the smell and sounds of the horses. It hung around my neck for too long…and I still can’t shake it! To top it all off is the nagging worry that the boyfriend is slightly crazy.  When a neighbor complained to him about something in his yard, he moved his trampoline as close as possible to that neighbor’s house and spent two hours jumping and yelling “wheeeeeee!” until late at night.  He is a bully who doesn’t like to back down and I have this fear that if this continues and takes a turn for the worse, they could continue to blame me and come after me in some way outside of work.  What did I learn? I am definitely too trusting and too compassionate; maybe if I had treated her less kindly early on she would have been more likely to give up the fight before it began.  The enforcement part of a zoning job is made significantly more difficult if you actually care about people.  Empathy is a good thing except when it impacts the ability to do the job.  It would be really convenient to come to work without a heart, but it really doesn’t work that way. This aspect of the job was completely unaddressed in my formal education, which I think was a major oversight. 

35. Issues and Solutions in Case Study #3 Issues • Fear and Anxiety • Guilt • Prolonged distress Possible Solutions • Protect yourself • Let go of what you can’t control • Evolution of anxiety • Talk to someone • Journal • Employee Assistance Program

36. Case Study #4

37. Case Study #4 Several years ago I lost my job because my position was eliminated. Although it was for budgetary reasons, I was one of the cuts because my job was seen as being “non-essential”. I performed many important tasks, including Planning & Zoning work, and it hurt to think that my contribution was not valued. It was especially painful to hear the idea that “others do something more important than what you do.” I have since gotten another job, and again I work hard to show my value, but I will always be wary that the time will come when I will once again be deemed “non-essential.”

38. Issues and Solutions in Case Study #4 Issues • Anxiety • Self-Esteem • Self-Validation Possible Solutions • Develop a persona independent from work • Cultivate other interests • Be your own cheerleader • Don’t be afraid to be assertive

39. Top Ten Ways to Be Resilient and Avoid Becoming Grumpy Cat

40. Top Ten Ways to Be Resilient and Avoid Becoming Grumpy Cat • Be assertive – you are in control • Stop negative self-talk – don’t dis’ yourself • Treat your body with respect – feed it right and give it exercise • Manage your time and take mini-breaks – Take a short walk • Relax, take deep breaths, meditate – Keep Calm and Carry On • Set boundaries – know when to say “step off” • See setbacks with perspective– let go of what you can’t control • Distract yourself from pre-occupations – Get it out of your head • Remember to have fun! - You are more than your job • Talk to someone - cut your problem in half by sharing it

41. Considerations for the Future • What can we as a community of Planners do to support ourselves and each other? • What are existing and effective institutional support mechanisms? • Are there different impacts and needs for junior, mid-level, and senior planners? • What is the role of planning education in preparing planners for these issues?